What hardware do I need to run Home Assistant?

Home Assistant runs on a small device in your home that stays on all the time. There are several options, depending on how much you want to do yourself:

  • Home Assistant Green is the recommended option for most people. It is a plug-and-play smart home hub that comes with Home Assistant already installed. You connect it to your network, and you are ready to go.
  • Home Assistant Yellow is for users who want a more powerful, expandable hub with built-in Zigbee and Thread radios.
  • A Raspberry Pi, mini PC, NUC, or virtual machine is a good option if you already own suitable hardware or want to run Home Assistant alongside other services.

You may have read that you need a Raspberry Pi to run Home Assistant. That used to be the most common option, but it is no longer the only one. Home Assistant Green now provides a true plug-and-play experience for people who do not want to source and assemble their own hardware.

You can also add accessories like the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter, or the Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition for local voice control.

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